Pluto's newly found moons named
(AP)
Updated: 2006-06-22 09:56
This photo taken by the Hubble Space telescope
and released by NASA shows the planet Pluto, center, with its two newly
named moons, from far right, Hydra and Nix, respectively. Pluto's other
moon, Charon, is seen closest to Pluto. [AP Photo]
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Meet the newest kids in the solar system: Nix and Hydra. The pair of moons
orbiting Pluto were officially christened last week by the International
Astronomical Union, which is in charge of approving celestial names.
Until last year, scientists thought Pluto was accompanied by only one moon,
Charon. But the Hubble Space Telescope spotted the two satellites, more than
twice as far away as Charon and many times fainter.
The duo had been known by the tongue-twisting names S/2005 P 2 and S/2005 P
1. Earlier this year, the moons' discoverers, led by Alan Stern of the Southwest
Research Institute in Boulder, Colo., submitted their choices to the IAU.
The names, with roots in Greek mythology, were selected in part because their
first letters, "N" and "H," were a tribute to the New Horizons spacecraft, Stern
said Wednesday.
New Horizons blasted off earlier this year on a nine-year mission to study
Pluto, the last unexplored planet in the solar system. Stern is the mission's
principal investigator.
Nix was originally spelled "Nyx" by Stern's group. Nyx is the Greek goddess
of darkness and Hydra is the nine-headed serpent that guarded the underworld.
Pluto is the Roman god of the underworld.
But since a near-Earth object was already called Nyx, the IAU decided to
tweak the spelling to "Nix" to avoid confusion.
Stern said he wasn't disappointed by the spelling change because the
pronunciation and significance of the names were still intact.
"The joke was that they nixed Nyx," Stern said.
This summer, the IAU will debate whether Pluto should remain a planet. The
discovery of an icy object slightly larger than Pluto in the Kuiper Belt last
year reinvigorated the argument over whether to demote Pluto or add other
planets.
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